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26 November 2013

Horsch Pronto DC...Sowing without limit

T​his week again, ​our friend Alberto has sent us some pictures. At​ this time, ​the main aim is ​about his sowing tasks. ​Because, it is the first time h​e uses​ his new seed drill which is a Horsch Pronto DC 4. This machine is ideal for mulch sowing (minimum tillage), so that he told us, he could sow cereal over sunflowers stubble this year without problems (previously, he sowed with a Solá pneumatic seed drill, he sold us, but he couldn't sow cereal without picking up sunflower stems before). With this machine, that is possible thanks to the seedbed-preparation unit with discs of 46cm.

This seed drill is of 4m working width (with 28 seed coulters and a row spacing of 14.3cm) and it has a hopper of 2,800 liters, so that he can sow about 14ha of barley straight off (he are using a dose of 150kg/ha of triticale, 180kg/ha of wheat and 170kg/ha of barley). The working speed ​depends on the​ terrain but it is between 7km/h and 13km/h. The weight of this machine is of 4,600kg and its length is of 6.9m so the mimimun power required is about 160HP (he has a Valtra T161 and a Valtra T190). The computer of seed drill allows him to manage the dose used (he told us it is very accurate​)​, besides to​ join distribution roller fixed and a lot of functionalities and alarms more (if a seed coulter is blocked, seed coulter pressure, he can close rows,...).

As all machinery, the​re are some weak points. In this occasion, ​the problem appears with the stones. He has commented, the seed drill had a few problems when he sowed some fields with a lot of stones.

Alberto doesn't practice direct seeding, he is carrying out minimum tillage and the result is good.In our area, all farmer work conventional tillage...we think we have to begin to work other techniques to change our results